


Something You Can Smile About

by starsandgraces



Category: Star Trek (2009)
Genre: AU, Alternate Universe - High School, High School, M/M
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2010-10-14
Updated: 2010-10-14
Packaged: 2017-10-12 16:06:15
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,735
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/126668
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/starsandgraces/pseuds/starsandgraces
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>Near-future HSAU. Pavel and Hikaru visit the American Museum of Natural History.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Something You Can Smile About

**Author's Note:**

  * For [withthepilot](https://archiveofourown.org/users/withthepilot/gifts).



> For my darling [withthepilot](http://withthepilot.livejournal.com/) on the occasion of her birthday (even if it's still a few hours to go over there). I can't be there this year, so instead I made a fic! Beta'd by [echoinautumn](http://echoinautumn.livejournal.com/).

It's Pavel's idea to skip school in the afternoon. They only have gym and their absence isn't going to affect their grades at all, so Hikaru reluctantly agrees. It's too cold for wearing little running shorts, even if Hikaru does like watching his boyfriend in them.

"Your dad's going to go crazy if he finds out," he says as they wait for the train to arrive.

"He won't find out," Pavel replies. He scuffs the toe of his sneaker against the concrete. "I will call him and say we're going over to your apartment after school, so he won't have any suspicions if I'm back late."

"Are we going somewhere we might be back late from?" Hikaru asks, shooting Pavel a worried look. It wouldn't be the first time it had happened.

"No, just later than if we were in school like usual, you know? Nothing bad, Hikaru; you worry too much." He reaches out to hold Hikaru's hand, squeezing his fingers reassuringly.

Hikaru nudges their shoulders together and leans in carefully to kiss the corner of Pavel's mouth. "Fine," he says. "But I'm blaming you if we get caught." He probably wouldn't blame Pavel, even though it was his idea. Probably.

They catch the train into Manhattan and get off near Central Park, which is full of tourists even in the middle of the day. It's easy enough to get lost in the crowd as they head towards the Museum of Natural History—not that it's going to be much quieter there. At least there won't be too many little kids, on account of it being the middle of a school day.

"You know," Hikaru says while they wait in the queue for tickets, "you're the only person I know who'd ditch school to visit a museum."

"No." Pavel shakes his head and pulls off his gloves, jamming them into his pockets.

"No?" He fiddles with his sleeve.

"You're also ditching school to visit a museum."

Pavel pays for both of their tickets and they scrape together enough loose change between them to check their coats and bags, then settle in for a long afternoon of wandering around the museum. Both Hikaru and Pavel have been here numerous times before—both together and separately—so there's very little they haven't seen. Whenever they go now, they spend more time talking to each other than they do looking at the exhibits, but there are still always one or two things that catch someone's attention. It's usually Pavel, but today Hikaru is the first to spot something.

"Heh," he says in the Milstein Hall of Ocean Life, as he always does. "Vulcan octopus."

"Do you think it's going to happen?" Pavel asks. "First contact? It's only supposed to be a few years away now."

"It'd be pretty cool, but they haven't even finished building the Mars base yet. No way we're going to invent warp drive in time."

" _And_ no jetpacks." Pavel sighs heavily.

Hikaru's still looking through the glass at the octopus. "He looks like a Spock, don't you think?"

"Spock's only half an octopus. I mean, half a Vulcan."

Even though Pavel's lived in New York for most of his life—a few years longer than Hikaru has—there are still some traces of a Russian accent that seep through, and words that start with "v" are the best for catching it. And Hikaru loves Pavel's Russian accent. He loves it when he's over at Pavel's apartment and Pavel and his father talk in Russian whenever Hikaru leaves the room. He doesn't care that he can't really understand what they're saying; he thinks he could listen to Pavel speaking Russian for the rest of his life. He loves it.

"Hey, stupid," says Pavel, snapping his fingers in front of Hikaru's face. "Earth to Hikaru Sulu."

He blinks and grabs at Pavel's hand, lacing their fingers together. "I'm here," he says. "I was just thinking about something."

"Vulcans?" he asks.

"Something like that. What do you want to go and look at next?"

"I don't know; the dinosaurs, maybe."

They do go up to the dinosaurs, which turns out to be a slight mistake because neither of them can find the stairs to get back down and the elevators are taking forever to come. They search around in confusion for quite a while before Pavel lets out a heavy sigh of frustration.

"I swear, the staircases in this building move around," he says. "Every time, they are in a different place and I can't find them."

"They can't move, it's impossible. You're just really bad at finding things." But they give up in the end and just wait ten minutes for the elevator, then try to stick to one level of the museum so that it won't happen again.

Pavel seems particularly interested in the meteorite exhibit, so they spend almost an hour in there while he stares at meteorites he must have seen at least fifty times before. Hikaru doesn't mind that much, though; it's adorable watching Pavel. He frowns and his lips purse slightly when he concentrates on something, and if he sees something that especially interests him, he squeezes on Hikaru's hand involuntarily. There's hardly enough pressure to notice, but Hikaru always smiles in spite of himself when he feels it.

"Hey," he says. "Stop being so cute."

"You don't mean that," Pavel says, leaning against him.

"No," he agrees, "stay cute forever."

"Only if you do." He smiles and flicks Hikaru's earlobe lightly.

They check out a few more exhibits before ending their afternoon by visiting the butterflies. Hikaru's more interested in a lot of the flowers that the butterflies are feeding on than the insects themselves, but he can appreciate why other people like them. The butterflies, in turn, seem more interested in Pavel than in him. They keep clustering around his head and alighting on his curls if he holds still enough. He looks as if he's wearing a really flamboyant hat.

"Fucking— _help_ ," he says. "It's like that movie, only with butterflies instead of birds."

"I wish I had a camera," Hikaru says, trying not to laugh.

"No, you don't."

"I'm pretty sure I _do_."

Pavel glares at him and then turns around in a circle a few times, carefully shaking his head from side to side and Hikaru loses it completely. His laughter manages to scare off the remaining butterflies, earning them both a few filthy looks from the other people in the conservatory. Luckily for them, the museum is about to close and it's time for everyone to go. Pavel keeps combing his fingers through his curls until he puts his hat back on.

"Are you sure they're all gone?" he asks over and over again.

"I'm sure. I was sure the last time, too. I don't think they'd let you walk out with butterflies on your head."

It's dark outside when they finally leave, barely a minute before the museum closes for the night, and it's just starting to sleet. Neither one of them has an umbrella, of course.

"Aren't you glad they solved global warming?" Hikaru asks Pavel, wrinkling his nose. He peers up at the sky and then tugs his hood over his head, pulling his coat more tightly around himself.

"I wish it would snow for real," he replies wistfully. "What's your least favourite type of precipitation?"

"Sleet, definitely. It sucks."

"I think mine is hail. But they are both like the disappointing brothers of snow."

Hikaru snorts and shoves his hands into his pockets. "Is that a Russian thing or are you being poetic?"

"I'm never telling."

"Okay, well, you can never tell me on the subway. It's cold and I'm getting wet and I want to get some dinner and go home. Are you coming?"

"To dinner or to home?" Pavel looks thoughtful.

"Both," he says. "Let's get pizza."

They stop at the nearest pizza place, which is overpriced and not nearly as good as it could be, in addition to being filled with tourists—but the pizza's hot and has plenty of pepperoni on top, and that's all Hikaru really wants right now. There's no point in hanging around there, so they eat as quickly as they can and then head off again.

The sleet got even heavier while they were inside, much to Hikaru's disgust. Pavel laughs at the look on his face, grabbing his wrist and tugging him in the direction of the nearest station. "It's just weather," he says. "You're not going to melt."

"You're just saying that because it's not hailing."

Pavel laughs again and breaks into a jog, forcing Hikaru to start running as well so he can keep up with him.

"I thought we were skipping gym," Hikaru half-yells at him as they go, dodging the people on the sidewalk. But it does get them out of the sleet faster, back down into the subway and onto the 7 train.

The car they get into is nearly empty, so they sit in the corner, almost on top of each other. Pavel curls his arm around Hikaru's shoulders and runs his thumb along the shell of his ear, stroking until Hikaru shivers and hunches up his shoulder, grabbing at his sleeve. He turns to face Pavel—so close that they're nose to nose—and after a long moment, he kisses him. Pavel kind of chuckles against his mouth before kissing him back.

Before he started dating Pavel, Hikaru swore he'd never be the kind of person to sit on a train and engage in public displays of affection, but now he doesn't even care. All he wants is to get home where they can be alone, but he really doesn't want to stop touching Pavel before then. It's something they both seem to agree on. Pavel's mouth is warm and inviting and it doesn't really matter that he tastes like pizza, because Hikaru does as well.

They miss their stop because they're too wrapped up in each other. By the time Pavel's tongue is out of his mouth, the train's already moving again and they have to get off at the next station and walk the extra way back to Hikaru's apartment, still holding hands. The sleet turned to rain while they were still underground and it's coming down on them so hard that it almost feels apocalyptic. But this time, they don't run.


End file.
